York Comedy Society’s Edinburgh Fringe offering holds its own amidst the festival with its charming idiosyncratic humour. Alex Hackitt-anwyl reviews

Monday 4 August 2014

Picture courtesy of ComedySoc

Rating: ★★★★☆
Venue: Sportsters (Fringe Venue 90)

Present and Correct is this year’s Edinburgh Fringe sketch show instalment from the University of York’s Comedy Society and it has everything we have come to expect from their work: witty writing, a consistent cast and a flair for the more ‘unusual’. The show follows the exploits of the staff at Penderson Brothers’ Office Supplies, following the journey of recently graduated Natalie as she finds herself recruited by the company.

In terms of performance there were some definite stand-out characters, in particular, the lift operators, who had the audience bawling with laughter. Lewis Dunn’s extra evil (dare I say melodramatic?) villain deserves a particular mention. The narrative running across the sketches offers something different and makes it easier for the audience to follow, giving an added continuity throughout the show. From barmy brain-stormers on the top floor to the socialist cat puppet, Whiskers, which starts the Sharing Revolution, the play seems to include everything.

But beware of Lenard the Lizard. The writing was fantastic, although it does call into question the sanity of some of those in the ComedySoc bunker and the added characterisation made it laugh out loud hilarious. Scene to scene transitions was done flawlessly and the show flowed really well. The only small issue with the play was the video played at the beginning, although this was a venue fault rather than the cast, as the acoustics made the recorded voices difficult to hear. This was easily rectifiable for future shows and did not detract from the physical performance or integral to the plot of the later sketches.

Fighting it out amongst the numerous sketch shows in the Fringe, the show certainly holds its own and is a fantastic representative of the amazing talent we have here at York University.